MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WKRN) – The United States Postal Service is on high alert for potential scammers after a local couple tried to buy money orders with stolen credit cards.

The U.S. Postal Inspector for the Nashville area has sent out an alert to be on the look-out for a man and woman going around the post offices trying to buy money orders– but not with their own money.

“Typically they use a stolen credit card, debit card or other information you can obtain on the dark web and they will go in and try to make a fraudulent purchase with these credit card numbers, well the post office sees a lot of people coming and going, so the scammers in this case saw what they thought was an easy target,” said Murfreesboro police spokesman Sgt. Kyle Evans.

(Photo: WKRN)

Workers at the main post office on Memorial Blvd. in Murfreesboro had just received the alert Friday about man and woman believed to be of Russian or Armenian descent driving a blue minivan.

Soon after, a woman matching the description walked in and tried to buy a $980 money order.

The postal clerk got suspicious and alerted a supervisor. When she returned to the counter, the woman was nowhere to be found.

“A very alert clerk made sure the post office was not victimized,” Evans said. “In this case, we were able to get the word out and hopefully we’ll be able to find someone who recognize these individuals and prevent this from happening again.”

(Photo: WKRN)

Murfreesboro police are working with postal inspectors. They tell News 2 in addition to the people who had their card numbers stolen, it’s the taxpayers who will get hit deep in the pockets.

“They are trying to scheme the United State Government and that’s all of our taxpayer’s dollars that are at work there,” Evans said. “They are trying to offer a service; they are trying to provide that. In this case you have a group of scammers going across the region trying to steal your hard earned tax dollars.”

“There is an on-going investigation where individuals are using compromised cards to purchase items at post offices,” U.S. Postal Inspector Greg Smith confirmed to News 2 by phone.

He said that’s about all he could release at this time.

Rutherford County CrimeStoppers is offering up to a $1,000 reward for information that could lead to the arrest of this couple. The number to call is 615-893-STOP.